Congressman Garret Graves met with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday to discuss the need to fix problems with Restore Louisiana, the state-run program that has been slow to disburse the 1.7 billion federal disaster recovery dollars appropriated by Congress after the Great Flood of August 2016.
HUD officials agreed to work with Graves and state officials to put together a strike team to identify and address state, federal and contractor delays to help the program’s implementation, according to an announcement from Graves’ office.
HUD also acknowledged the possibility of relief for certain homeowners caught in the so-called duplication of benefits trap, in which refusing an SBA loan means they’re also denied federal recovery grants. HUD agreed that Graves’ duplication of benefits legislation that passed Wednesday in the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee is necessary.
Graves and the governor’s office note $1.2 billion in flood mitigation dollars were approved by Congress in February and are urging HUD to quickly issue the federal guidance necessary for states to begin using the funds for flood protection and other projects in affected states.
Graves says HUD indicated that the state may be able to proceed with flood protection work using state funds that could then be reimbursed with the HUD dollars in coming months.
